EVERETT — The next time you’re at the grocery checkout and the person in front of you is short a few dollars, step up and pay the difference.

“It’s worth giving just to see the gratitude,” Georgia McDade told a few hundred people who packed the pews at First United Methodist Church near downtown Everett Sunday evening.

McDade, a Seattle writer and educator, was the featured speaker at an event marking the birthday of slain civil rights leader the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

King would have turned 79 last week.

The event at the downtown church included several powerful and uplifting songs performed by the Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Choir and intricate marching routines by a dozen or so youngsters with the Northside Drill Team of Snohomish County.

McDade’s talk focused on simple steps people can take year-round to honor King, who did much in his 39 years to help others.

She pointed out that King was in Memphis, Tenn., to support striking garbage workers when he was shot on April 4, 1968.

“If you love Dr. King, if you believe in Dr. King, you have to start with these small things,” McDade said.

Show courage and stand up for people who have been overlooked, she said.

Something as small as turning off your cell phone when at a store, smiling at someone or treating a person to coffee or lunch can send out a positive ripple effect that exemplifies King’s assignment of love, ­McDade said.

McDade, a former professor of English at Tacoma Community College who also taught at the University of Washington, encouraged people to volunteer for literacy programs, to donate to charities and to invite people to church services or the performing arts.

She urged people to get involved with a neighborhood project or to help someone record their life story so that they may pass acquired wisdom onto future generations.

Everett Mayor Ray Stephanson, Snohomish County Superior Court Judge Eric Lucas and other community leaders were among the standing-room-only audience. Stephanson read a city proclamation establishing this as Martin Luther King Jr. Week in Everett. A representative with Snohomish County read a similar countywide proclamation. The annual celebration, which is organized by a coalition of faith-based organizations, started in Everett in 1986, three years after Martin Luther King Jr. Day became a federal holiday.

Reporter David Chircop: 425-339-3429 or dchircop@heraldnet.com.